Category: Uncategorized

Louisiana State Police Trooper Scott Lopez’s son, Benjamin Cole, smiles at farmer Billy Broussard and gives him a hand signal (purported to be the symbol for “loser”) as he states, “hope you got a good picture.”  Lopez engaged in this act mere minutes after he alleges Broussard committed “simple assault” against him.

We want to once again express sincere appreciation to Ms. Karen Berthelot for her dedication on fulfilling a public records request we’ve had outstanding for quite some time.  That request has been for the all-important videos taken by Benjamin Cole Lopez, son of LSP Trooper Scott Lopez, on April 25, 2022, and upon which the entire “case” against farmer Billy Broussard hinged.

Ms. Berthelot alerted us yesterday, July 19, 2022, that the videos were ready for pickup on a DVD, and we had that DVD in our hands by late yesterday evening.

We will point out that they are the same videos which St. Martin Parish Sheriff Deputy Baily Romero easily had Benjamin Cole Lopez text to him within seconds on April 25, 2022.  That’s the date Lopez sought to pursue Broussard for “simple assault,” and, as per his father, LSP Trooper Scott Lopez’s guidance, “at a minimum, obstruction of public roadway.”

The St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office’s attorney took a rather protracted period to formally approve the release of the two videos:  one of which is 15 seconds in length, and the other of which is three seconds in length.

We can only assume that, with that attorney knowing that St. Martin Parish District Attorney Bo Duhe’ declined to prosecute the charge, there simply was no legal way to block release of the videos since they are clearly public record and no prosecutorial efforts remain.

The DVD we obtained contained the following:  the 15-second video and the 3-second video, both taken by Lopez; the 9-second video taken by Broussard; and (5) still photos, two of which were derived from Lopez, and three which were derived from Broussard’s video.

We integrated the videos from the public records response and the associated still photos into key segments of St. Martin Parish Deputy Baily Romero’s body-cam video from April 25, 2022.  Our goal being to create one seven-minute video outlining LSP Trooper Scott Lopez and his son, Benjamin Cole Lopez’s, allegations together with the video evidence they supplied to back up those allegations.  Here is that seven-minute video:

4/25/22:  Integration video of Lopez’s allegations and videos and still photos to back up those allegations.

We are going to make no commentary on the above video other than to say we had a number of attorneys and retired law enforcement officers who were baffled at how what’s depicted in the video above resulted in any judge signing an arrest warrant application.

As we’ve previously reported, the application was initially presented to Judge Lewis Pitman, whom we’re told is the “Senior Judge” for the District.  When he declined to sign the application, Deputy Romero pulled it from Pitman and then presented the arrest warrant application to Judge Suzanne deMahy, who signed the application within minutes.  It remains an open question as to whether added statements or material was submitted to Judge deMahy to cause her to pursue a very different action than that of Judge Pitman.

Because we believe that the probability of additional litigation over this matter is probable, however, we are going to refrain from making any additional commentary.  Obviously, when and if the day arises where that litigation is reality, we will of course report on the content of any such litigation.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Judge Hunter Greene, presently a family court judge in 19th JDC and candidate for Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal for the seat being vacated by retiring Judge J. Michael McDondald, addresses the Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

As followers of this blog are aware, we recently filed a pro se lawsuit against Louisiana State Police for what we firmly believe is an abuse of Louisiana’s public records laws to shield the public from uncovering more problematic activity by LSP troopers.

We said when we filed the suit that we’d live with whatever decision Judge Don Johnson (D-Baton Rouge) made regarding whether we got to see the requested records.  What we meant by that is that we would lodge no appeal of his decision if it was not in our favor.  What we did not commit to was refraining from launching an all-out attack against Johnson if he ruled against us, which he did, as he pursues a promotion to the First Circuit Court of Appeals as he is widely expected to do when qualifying takes place this Wednesday through Friday.

In fact, we said that it’s our belief that EBR voters should,  “file Judge Johnson away (on 19th JDC) “as is,” which correlates PRECISELY with the wording he used regarding our proposed judgment (i.e. “file as is”), which he declined to sign and instead signed LSP’s proposed judgment denying us (and by inference, all of our subscribers and site visitors) access to the requested records.

In the previously-linked article, we listed the five (5) candidates widely expected to qualify for the First Circuit Court of Appeals seat being vacated by the retirement of long-time Judge J. Michael McDonald.  While we declined to formally endorse any of the four (4) Republicans expected to qualify for the race, we stated that any one of the four would be far preferable to promoting Johnson, a Democrat with serious past problematic acts as illustrated on the just-linked feature, to a seat on the First Circuit.

On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, one of the expected four Republican qualifiers, Hunter Greene, was the guest speaker at the Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon here in Baton Rouge.  Let’s take a just a few minutes to view a couple of highlights from his presentation:

Greene responds to question posed by Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns entailing the adequacy of Louisiana’s Public Records Laws and whether Louisiana would be wise to adopt a statute similar to Texas’s Public Records Laws calling for any denied public records request to be automatically reviewed by the Texas Attorney General to assess whether that denial was justified.

Greene commits that, if elected, he will personally read the briefs submitted to the Court entailing cases on which he’s assigned to be a decision maker.

As we’ve previously indicated, we consider this race to be the most important race on the ballot for East Baton Rouge voters.  We believe that not only because of the lack of intrigue in the other races but also because we believe it is absolutely imperative to have a responsible judge to replace McDonald.  Being blunt, given his past antics (not to mention our frustration over his decision on our recent lawsuit), we certainly do not believe that Judge Johnson constitutes a “responsible” judge to replace McDonald.

We commit to provide features on any of the other expected three Republican candidates for the First Circuit Court of Appeal vacancy as they are invited to speak at luncheons and/or participate in debate forums.

Obviously, we’d be very content with a victory by Judge Greene, even if it did take him a couple of tries to pass the CPA exam (that’s meant as humor).  Burns, who was also a student of Dr. Dan Kyle just like Greene, passed the exam on his first attempt.  Nevertheless, Burns would quickly concede in no time flat that he lacks the patience to deal with law school or serving in the Louisiana Legislature.  Greene is obviously far more disciplined than Burns in that regard.  At any rate, we obviously like his standing as a CPA in addition to being a lawyer and judge.

There was one other noteworthy presentation at the meeting, and that was Coleman Brown’s frustrations entailing what he assesses as a high-priced ($1 billion +) Interstate 10 expansion and replacement just off the Mississippi River Bridge East bound.  We covered details of Brown’s proposal 2 1/2 years ago, and here’s video of him (and others) voicing frustration at DOTD’s current plans for the work:

Brown (and others) voice frustration at the current DOTD proposal for expanding and replacing a section of I-10 Eastbound off the Mississippi River Bridge.

CLICK HERE for the luncheon in its entirety.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

LSP Col. Lamar Davis, just after being pulled over by an LSP Trooper for allegedly going 91 MPH in a specifically-designated dangerous section of I-10 along the Atchafalaya Basin, thus justifying the 60 MPH speed limit for personal vehicles and 55 MPH for 18-wheelers.

We made it clear earlier this week entailing our thoughts on LSP Col. Lamar Davis being quoted as stating that LSP Troopers can, “use their discretion to turn off body cameras when they assess the situation as non-confrontational.”  From that feature:

 For the record, we EMPHATICALLY DISAGREE with LSP Col. Lamar Davis when he says, “a trooper has discretion to turn off his body camera when he assesses that the situation won’t be combative.”

That statement is perhaps the most bone-headed, idiotic, asinine statement we’ve ever heard ANY public official make; furthermore, given the circumstances under which Davis made that statement, the public has every right to be outraged (and they clearly are) by Davis’ recent irresponsible conduct.

In our opinion, what needs to happen is that “LA-ONE” (i.e. Gov. John Bel Edwards) needs to mandate Davis be assessed with the first $350 fine which technically don’t take effect until August against Davis to set an example.  Furthermore, Edwards (as “LA-ONE”)  should mandate a 24-hour suspension of Davis to demonstrate that LSP Troopers are NOT going to be permitted to be “above the law.” Davis can, of course, appeal that suspension to the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) if he so chooses, and we’d love to film that!

At the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) meeting of Thursday, July 14, 2022, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns took it a step further and stated that, if Davis is unwilling to publicly retract his statement regarding the body cameras, he “needs to be removed as LSP Colonel.”  Here’s Burns making that statement to the LSPC:

7/14/22 LSPC Meeting:  Burns calls upon LSP Col. Davis to make a public retraction of his statement entailing discretion to turn off body camera in non-confrontational situations or else be removed from his position as LSP Colonel.

The feature in London publication which Burns references covering Davis’ outlandish and flagrant flaunting of his apparent perceived lack of need to adhere to public safety measures is available for viewing here.  At the time of publication of this feature, it had a whopping 681 comments!

With all of the problems LSP has experienced in body cameras being turned off, it is completely inexcusable for the Colonel of LSP to give a public green light to even more such deactivations, and that’s particularly the case given that his guidance in that regard is a flat-out violation of LSP’s body-worn camera policy!

Anybody is prone to place his foot in his mouth on occasion as Davis clearly did in this instance.  It’s certainly understandable.  What is not acceptable, however, is when a person has too much pride and/or arrogance to fix the problem of having placed his foot in his mouth by publicly retracting the erroneous and ill-advised statement.  We’ll see if Davis fits the category of having too much pride and/or arrogance and, if so, we firmly believe he needs to be removed from his position as LSP Colonel.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.